Very interesting article. I wonder how many people find themselves doing some of these things, and how many people recognize themselves from the descriptions offered. The idea of following the “main paths” is an interesting one. I’ve noticed a lot of people do just that in stores; I tend to just cut through and across lines to get to where I’m going – follow the path of least resistance, which isn’t always the same. About the only time I avoid the “back roads” in a store is when they’re blocked by a crowd of people.

It’s also true that we do basically swallow what we’re taught by our culture without examining to see whether or not it is worthy of consideration. We’re taught to think certain things are noble and certain other things are ignoble. The same with morality and immorality. People are taught that the idea of many gods is silly but the idea of one god makes all the sense in the world when, in fact, there is no logical reason to think any such thing.

In these senses, the article is a wake-up call to people. My biggest complaint when my children were in school is that they weren’t being taught to reason. They were being taught to remember a list of facts and to repeat them back rather than figuring out why those facts matter, or even what they mean. I always said I’d rather my kids know WHY the events of 1941 came about than to remember WHEN they did. When I blog it’s with the idea of making people stop and think, to question, to take a pause and think about what they’ve always believed. I figure if even one person DOES stop to think then it’s worth any time I put into it. It’s rather like the movie Wall-E where, when Wall-E accidentally bumps into a woman and knocks her off her chair, she actually, and for the first time, realizes there is a world around her, and other people.

Everyone needs to experience that moment of epiphany. Unfortunately, most people are too conditioned to question or to think. As the author said, it’s not expected or demanded of us to think independently. It’s always been that way of course, which is why every society has always had outcasts and rebels, but I’m afraid with all the modern means of conditioning that the situation has only gotten worse, and will likely continue to get worse.

A must read.